For the past three years a new pan European services standard for the aesthetics sector has been in development.

This work has been coordinated at the European level by CEN, the European Committee for Standardization. Member states, including the UK, have been making considerable input into this work, and it had been hoped to publish the standard (as EN 16372) by Q2 / Q3 2014.

The current working title for the EN 16372 standard, reflecting its wide scope, is: 'Aesthetic surgery and aesthetic non-surgical medical services'. However CEN have announced that, for procedural reasons, the decision has now been made to split EN 16372 into two separate standards. One will deal solely with 'aesthetic surgery services', and the other with 'aesthetic non-surgical medical services'. It is anticipated that the content of the two separate standards will be similar to the recent public consultation draft - but simply split into two documents. The target publication dates for the two standards are by Q2 and Q4 2014 respectively.

The standard aims to define the requirements for the quality for the aesthetic surgery service offered in order to ensure patient safety and other factors which influence the overall quality of service included such as staff behaviour and facility design.

This European standard is designed to help clinics who adopt it to:

Improve their services by enhancing patient safety and avoid the risk of complications

Avoid patient criticism about poor service

Ensure patients are clearly communicated to and each procedure is clearly explained including the risks

Have the right facilities for the procedures offered

Keep and maintain patient records

Selection process of products and suppliers

Effective and timely post-procedure check-up process

Note to non UK readers of this Post: Other member countries within CEN (the European Committee for Standardisation) are also running public consultations, and for details of how to take part please contact your NSB (National Standardisation Body).